Creating sustainable fashion through household waste

Omi Gurung, a Bangalore based fashion designer is doing his bit to save the environment. He recycles household waste to create stunning accessories and decorative items. He also conducts workshops to educate and empower the youth.

Jewellery made out of paper and painted with natural colours

Recycling and sustainability is gaining popularity and slowly people are becoming more aware of it. Many fashion designers are coming up with some truly innovative and incredible ideas and are creating products using waste and discarded materials such as cloth, cans, plastic, and paper.

Omi Gurung, a Bangalore-based fashion designer is all for recycling and is doing his bit to save the environment. This young entrepreneur who recently launched his label ‘OMI’ has been educating people on recycling household waste. He says “Recycling waste materials and making useful products is an approach towards sustainability. Recycling not only conserves energy but also gives ways to innovation in terms of products, designs and new production methods. Recycling is not about looking backward, it’s about looking ahead to do things in a better way,”

Decorative item made out of plastic bags

He further adds, “As a designer, I have always thought of means to recycle waste materials and create something useful and productive out of it. I love to play around with different materials and trust me, its fun exploring them. Making products out of waste is not difficult either. Waste material itself gives you an idea of the new product,”

Some of the products designed by Omi include accessories such as earrings, belts, bags and decorative items like photo frames, pen stands and card holders that are all made of waste products. “Going green, recycling and eco-friendly are trendy buzzwords these days. But behind the buzz, there is a real need for each of us to take action. Landfills filled with our garbage produce a dangerous greenhouse gas called methane. And excessive household waste is a lifestyle problem. We can bring a change, if we think green and go green,” points out Omi.

In order to tackle this lifestyle problem, Omi suggests that people should put to use their household waste. He says “Household waste mostly comprises of plastic waste, paper waste and food particles. Instead of discarding the plastic and paper waste, why not create something useful out of it. And you can decompost the food particles which you can later use as manure. Also Internet is a very good solution to reduce the usage of papers. Today everyone has internet at their home, where they can easily read the news online. This would save many trees,”

As a part of the Joy Of Giving Week 2010, Omi is organizing “Go Green” exhibition on 26 September at his residence in Banashankari. Go Green is an awareness promotion exhibition cum sale of fashionable products made out of household waste. At the exhibition Omi will showcase funky key chains and earrings made out of bottle caps, planters made out of waste food containers and accessories made out of old news papers and magazines. And 50% of proceeds from the exhibition will be used to conduct free workshop for underprivileged and NGO’s.

Omi also has a social group, which is quite active on Facebook. They regularly conduct workshops to educate and empower the underprivileged. “Our groups’ main aim is to spread awareness about various environmental issues and to empower the youth with skills that will help them in the long run,” he adds. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The exhibition is on 26 Sep 2010, between 11am-6pm. To know more log on to - Facebook Page or contact Omi - 9241756710.